After the Bedtime Stories
by Primuler
Summary: It's Meelo's favorite time of the day: Listening to stories about his grandpa Aang's adventure from grandma Katara. Tenzin doesn't want Katara to tell his son Meelo stories of Aang. What had happened after Ozai was defeated? Oneshot. Zutara.


Disclaimer: I do own some original ATLA arts given out as presents at season previews, but I don't own anything else.

Note: Meelo is Tenzin's son. Tenzin is Aang's son. Since the series is not out yet, their age calculations might be incorrect(since no one knows their ages yet).

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Meelo tucked into his bed as soon as he finished brushing his teeth, waiting for his grandma to come. It was his favourite time of the day: Listening bedtime stories about the Avatar from his grandma. He was waiting very eagerly, with his eyes wide open like a cute puppy when Katara entered his bedroom. Katara, who was in her middle sixties now, sat on the chair next to Meelo's bed.

"Now, where did I finish off last time?" said Katara in husky voice, gently looking into Meelo's eyes.

"At the point where Fire Nation Prince left his palace to join the Avatar!" said Meelo excitedly, jumping up and down in his bed, not able to contain his excitement like a fire.

"Oh, yes, I did. So the Prince betrayed his father for the honour of his country..." Katara began her story. Meelo became as quiet as a rock and was seeped into her story like a water.

Meelo's eyes were filled with tears when he heard about Southern Raiders, he laughed merrily when he heard about Ember Island Players, and when he heard about the final battle between Ozai and Aang, he was so excited so that his hands got nearly wet with sweat. His emotions moved as her story went along like a wind.

"... and so, the evil Phoenix King was defeated and the world was at peace at last." Katara finished her story. It was very late in the night. Usually, Meelo would have fallen asleep by now, but he seemed to be very excited to sleep.

"Were there any more Avatar adventures after that?" Meelo asked curiously, his tone still wide awake. As Katara opened her mouth to answer, someone knocked on the room door and a bald man who resembled Aang a lot entered the room.

"Are you still up, Meelo? You should sleep now. It's pretty late you know." said Tenzin. If someone had looked at him, they would say he was Aang, but if you had second glance at him, you would notice his blue eyes and different aura.

"Grandma was going to tell me about what happened to the Avatar after the Phoenix king was defeated! I wanna listen to it!" said Meelo, beaming at his dad at his brightest.

Suddenly, Tenzin's face went dark. Though he didn't look at Katara, it was quite clear that he was angry at her. Noticing change in his dad's mood, Meelo pulled blanket up to his face.

"You have a big day ahead tommorrow, Meelo. You really should sleep now." Tenzin repeated, trying to keep his tone calm. Scared, Meelo squeaked small 'goodnight' and disappeared under blankets. Tenzin stood there still for a second and stormed out of the room without saying goodnight to Meelo.

"Goodnight, Meelo." said Katara, looking troubled. She turned the bedside lamp off and tidied . She went out of the room as she closed the door. She went to living room to find Tenzin sitting on bearskin sofa.

"Mom, will you please stop telling Meelo about dad's adventure as bedtime stories?" said Tenzin in a seriously annoyed tone.

"I see that you're still upset about your father." said Katara quietly as if she knew what was going to happen next.

"Well, who wouldn't? I know that he had his own reasons, but that doesn't mean I'll be proud of him." said Tenzin glumly.

"The almighty god's earthly half who had to choose either his wife or world but chose to save both and nearly lost all... I mean, I admit that I hated dad for it when I was a kid, but it's okay with me now. It's what he did after I'm not happy with."

"Tenzin, it was my own choice." said Katara calmly, but Tenzin seemed more angered by her words.

"You say it was your own choice, but I know that he made it so that you couldn't reject his marriage proposal. It's so disgusting. I wonder if he cared about how my mom thought if she was there?" said Tenzin, nearly yelling out.

Aang had married with a waterbender in Southern Water Tribe whom he met during the reconstruction. Although he loved Katara, Katara loved Zuko and she had chosen not to marry anyone(as Zuko loved Mai) since she couldn't give her heart to anyone. So Aang married a woman named Kaira, who was similar to Katara the most.

Several years after Aang's victory, when Tenzin was just 6 years old, Ozai's forces rose up to rebel with Azula at the lead. Mai died during the war as well(to be precise, her death was the start of the war). The rebellion army was unstoppable, but Aang rose to resist them. When he entered the Avatar state, he found out that Ozai was holding his wife a hostage. He tried to rescue her and stop the army at the same time, but his wife got killed and he himself barely survived in the process(the memory became a trauma to Tenzin). In the end, the peace was restored.

In Mai's absence, Zuko and Katara were getting on pretty well, healing each other's wounds together. A year later, Aang asked Katara, who was a single at that time, to be Tenzin's mother. Since Katara knew how painful it was to grow up without a mother and she knew the circumstances in Fire Nation, she married Aang. Of course, Aang wasn't too comfortable about this. Neither were Zuko and Katara. To keep the palace quiet, Zuko stopped seeing Katara and Aang in person for personal matters ever again. Zuko became enemies with his own government because of this, and this relationship lasted throughout his reign. Katara at first seemed to take reality fast, but she couldn't help showing deeply sad faces whenever she heard news of Zuko having conflict with his government. At least, this was what Tenzin thought and knew.

"Look, I chose what was for the best, and I have no regrets about my own choice now and I never did. It's not something that was forced onto me." said Katara, her voice becoming shaky. "Besides, he really loved Kaira... I don't know why you're thinking your father married Kaira because she was like me, but it's the opposite. He married me because he couldn't forget your mother..."

Katara sniffed and continued on.

"I didn't tell you that up till now because I thought you might hate your father more, but that's what I wanted to tell you. He's been through more than he can get over. He was really devastated by the fact that he couldn't save Kaira and was never the same again..."

These words struck Tenzin like whips. Remembering how different his father was when he was with his own mom, it somehow came to him like a realization. But still, the sad look on Katara's face burned down his heart.

"I know how you're feeling. But think about this. Because of your father's choice, look at what a great man you've become. Look at how great... great the Fire Nation has become..." said Katara. Tenzin noticed some tears in her eyes. He understood her pain. When she 'married' Aang, many of the Fire Nation noblemen talked about how they were worrying that she might end up with Zuko. Even though Tenzin was only 6 years old at that time, he could understand what was going on around him.

If Katara had married or stayed close to Zuko, the Fire Nation government would've been torn apart again. But since she did not and kept distance from him, Zuko could control his political opponents without almost any obstacles. Katara wiped some tears from her wrinkles. She sniffed again. Tenzin could feel how that day's decision, and those days' stress was still paining her although it should have become a memory by now since so much time has passed. This was the very reason what made Tenzin hate Aang so much. As much as Tenzin loved his biological mum, he loved Katara too. And some sad smiles like this she bore rarely angered him. Although Tenzin had grown up, and understood well how Aang was feeling about this all his life by now, this occasional sad looks broke his heart.

"You're all he has... And I don't want you to be sad like this... What will become of his choice if you are like this? Please don't hate him so much. He's a poor man." said Katara, tears falling from her eyes.

Even after so many years, Tenzin still couldn't know how to take this. Because of Aang, everyone was able to lead a normal life, yet at the same time he had left wounds on everyone's hearts. But bringing up situations like this didn't solve the matters. It only made emotions worse. Tenzin realized that he should have to understand and accept what his father has done in order for them to get this matter over and he's the only one who hasn't when everyone had.

"Sorry mum... I... I was being childish again..." said Tenzin, embracing Katara. It may take another decade to heal this wound completely, but acceptance is the first step he can take. Maybe next time Aang comes back home from world-saving journey again, he will say sorry to him and accept what he has done. He thought, as a Fire Nation mailhawk perched on his usual tree branch outside the window.

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Thank you for reading up to here. I hope this fic didn't feel odd or strange to you. I would love serious criticisms! (and grammar corrections since I'm not a native English speaker)

Feeling a bit rebellious at Bryke for disappointing Zutarians, I first started off with a theory: How can Kataang not happen when they have a child? Answer: adoptive son. And after a bit more thinking came this fic. At first, I was quite satisfied, but as I wrote along and analyzed characters' feelings, I felt that I wouldn't want to give characters this future if I was given a choice. The setting is mostly based off the changed version of previous fic of mine 'Choice of Peace, Result of Chaos(incomplete)' so you might want to check it out if you liked this fic.

I wanted to add a bit of Toph in this fic as well, but that would have made this fic not suitable for a oneshot. And I hardly ever finish longshots (that's the reason why CoPRoC is incomplete as well).


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